London police chief contradicts PM on knife crime assertions

Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, Cressida Dick arrives for a service to mark the centenary of the Royal Air Force (RAF) at Westminster Abbey in central London on July 10, 2018. (AFP photo)

Britain’s most senior police commander rejects Prime Minister Theresa May’s assertions that reduced police officers should not be blamed for a surge in knife crime, saying there is a certain link between government austerity and increased violence on the streets.

London’s Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said on Tuesday that years of government cuts to police budget had left the force understaffed and incapable of seeing to all emergencies.

“There is some link between violent crime on the streets, obviously, and police numbers, of course there is, and I think everybody would see that,” said Dick.

The comments came a day after May denied austerity programs had played a role in increased stabbings and other form of violence on the streets.

In her first reaction to a new wave of knife crimes that has left young people dead in London and other large cities, May said resources were not a question and authorities should search for other reasons behind the surge in violence.

However, Dick said that number of police forces had decreased dramatically across the UK, helping gangs and drug traffickers to expand their activities.

“In the last few years, police officer numbers have gone down a lot, there’s been a lot of cuts in other public services, there’s been more demand for policing, and therefore there must be some link,” she said.

London and other large cities in the UK recorded highest levels of homicide, including fatal stabbings, last year.

Several teenagers, including a 17-year-old girl, have been killed in mostly unprovoked attacks in London and other large cities over the past days.

Recent reports said government and local officials in UK’s second largest city of Birmingham were rolling out life saving kits in public places to help citizens cope with stabbing emergencies. The Home Office (interior ministry) said the kits, meant to control bleeding of victims until medics reach the scene, would be placed in crowded places in all cities across the UK if the pilot scheme in Birmingham succeeds.